Gold Text:
People Predestined to gourmandism are in general of medium height; they have round or square faces, bright eyes, small foreheads, short noses, full lips and rounded chins. The women so predisposed are plump, more likely to be pretty than beautiful, and have a tendency toward corpulence. The ones who are most fond of tidbits and delicacies are finer featured, with daintier hair, they are more attractive, and above all are distinguished by a way of speaking which is all their own.
Grey Text:
People to whom Nature has denied the capacity for such enjoyment, on the other hand, have long faces, noses, and eyes; no matter what their height, they seem to have a general air of elongation about them. They have flat dark hair, and above all lack healthy weight; it is undoubtedly they who invented trousers, to hide their thin shanks. Women whom Nature has afflicted in the same miserable way are scrawny, and bored at table, and exist only for cards and sly gossip.
Both passages abstracted from “Sensual Predestination” chapter of The Physiology of Taste by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, published in 1825.
Sensual Predestination (for Jean Anthemle Brillat-Savarin) consists of two mounted plexiglass mirrors laser-etched with text directly abstracted from the chapter titled “Sensual Predestination” from The Physiology of Taste. The chapter highlights and describes the physical attributes of persons predestined to gourmandism and persons who are not. Listing facial features, hair type, stature, and even social tendencies, the chapter categorizes its subjects into two simple and distinct divisions. Although the text was written in the late 18th century, the words hold striking familiarity and relevance to today’s consumer, forcing the viewer to chose a side.